Load-equalizing car brake



Filed June 4, 1923 30 127 10 '44 2 20 2 i E 16 2a 23 323631 I 151732 f g38 35 {NvEmoR 11 .154 1J Jflflllfi'tiegelmqyez;

a] I 17 BY 42 25 20 Patented Feb. 17, 1925.

UNITED STATES JOHN R. STIEGELMEYER, 0F INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

LOAD-EQUALIZING CAB BRAKE.

Application filed. June 4,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN R. STIEGEL- MEYER, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State ofIndiana, have invented a new and useful Load-Equalizing Car Brake, ofwhich the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a mechanism, by means of whichthe brakes of vehicles, such for instance as freight and passenger cars,may be applied to the supporting wheels of the vehicle proportionally tothe load carried by the vehicle at the time of the application of thebrakes.

By means of this mechanism, a series of cars coupled into the sametrain, will have their brakes applied to their wheels by forcesproportional to the weights carried by the bodies of the cars althoughthe forces used in the application of the brakes will be the same in allcars.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention: Fig. 1 is a sideelevation of a truck, of common form, of a freight car, equipped with myimproved brake applying mechanism; Fig. 2, a transverse vertical sectionon line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1 and Fig.4, a fragmentary sectional detail.

In the drawings, 10 10 indicate alined wheels of a body-supporting truckconnect-- ed, in the usual manner, by frame 11. A complete truckcomprises two pairs of wheels 10, 10 and two frames 11, 11 and the twoframes 11, 11 are connected by a transverse spring-pla-nk 12 whichextends from one frame to the other in the usual manner.

Also, extending between the two plates 11 is the bolster 13 upon whichthe car body 14 is supported, springs 15 being interposed between thespring-plank 12 and the bolster 13.

Thus far the construction is common and standard.

In my present construction, however, I interpose between thespring-plank 12 and the springs 15 of each side, a spring-cup 16provided with vertical sides 17, 17 the outer faces of which areprovided with pockets 18, 1 8, the upper wall of each of said pocketsforming a cam-engaged surface.

Arranged alongside of each pocket wall 17 is a plate 20 the inner face(i. e., the face immediately adjacent the adjacent wall 17) 1923. SerialNo. 643,203.

face.

In each pocket formed by the two facing pockets 18 and 21 I mount a cam23 which is provided with flanking trunnion portions 24, 24, and anoperating lever 25. IVall 17 is vertically slotted, in the bottom ofpocket 18, by a slot 26 having a horizontal d mension equal to thediameter of a trunnion 24 and a vertical dimension in excess thereof.Similarly, plate 20 is vertically slotted, in the bottom of pocket 21 bya slot 27 having a horizontal dimension equal to the diameter of theadjacent trunnion 24 and a vertical dimension in excess thereof. A headed bolt- 28 is passed through the trunnioned cam structure 23, 24, thehead thereof engaging the inner face of wall 17 and the outer endpassing through a bearing bracket 29, vertically slotted at 29, carriedby the spring pocket 16, the bolt being held in place by suitableretaining means 30. Bolted to the spring-plank 12 are two pairs ofbearing brackets 31, 32, each of said bearing brackets being provided atits upper end with a bearing for the reception of the fulcrum of abrake-shoe lever 36, to which a brake-shoe 37 is pivoted. Each fulcrum35 is provided with a pair of arms 38, 38, which extend toward cams 23and the outer ends of each pair of said arms 38 are connected by pin 39passed through horizontal slots in plates 20.

Brackets 31 are similarly provided at their upper ends with bearings forthe reception of the fulcrum 35 of a brake lever 36 to which abrake-shoe 37 is pivoted, and said fulcrum 35 is provided with inwardlyextending arms 38, like arms 38, connected by pin 39' which also extendsthrough slots 40.

Brackets 31 are also provided with hearing brackets 42 in which isjournalled the main operating shaft 43 which extends across beneath thecar from one bracket 31 to the other. Secured to shaft 43 near each endare arms 44, one for'each cam 23, and each of these arms is connected bya link 45 with a cam arm 25.

It will be noted that by this construction there are two cams 23arranged to float between each spring pocket 16, and the adjacent pairof brake levers 36 and 36, and that all of the cams are capable ofsimultaneous by the truck through the medium of springs 15 in the usualmanner, the cams 23 floating in non-active position. henever brakingforce is applied to the lever 46, the cams 23 will be swung so as tosimultaneously engage the surfaces 19 and 22 so that said cams will beinterposed between the spring pockets and the springs 15 so that theload in the car body will be thus utilized as an abutment against whichthe cams of the braking mechanism act upon the brake shoes.

It will be apparent, from what has been said above, that in the case oftwo cars of the same train, one of which is loaded and the other ofwhich is empty, a train line reduction which will be sufficient to causethe operating lever 46 of the empty car to move through its completepossible movement, thereby swinging cams 23 of that car as far as theywill swing (limited by the possible movement of the piston or by anyother suitable means), so that the cams of this car will be fullyinterposed between the brakes and the car body, will be sufficient toproduce, in the loaded car, a very much less movement of the cams 23.

It will also be apparent that, under such conditions, the resistanceoffered by the loaded car body, as an abutment for the cams of that carwill permit the transference, to the brake shoes, of the entire brakingforce applied to lever 46 whereas, in the unloaded car, some of thatbraking force will be resisted by the stop which limits the movement ofthe cams of that car and that consequently the amount of braking forcewhich is effective upon the wheels of the loaded car will be greaterthan the amount of braking force which is effective upon the wheels ofthe unloaded car. In other words, the applied forces to the brakingmechanism of the several cars of the train being, of necessity, equal toeach other, yet nevertheless, through the medium of my mechanism, theeffective braking forces applied through the shoes to the wheels of theseveral cars, will be proportional to the loads carried by the bodies ofthose cars. Consequently, a heavily loaded car, having a greatermomentum,

' will be more heavilybraked, proportionally to its load, than anunloaded or a lighter loaded car, and therefore the efiective brak ingforces acting upon the several cars of the train will be proportional tothe forces to be braked and substantially uniform in effect throughoutthe train.

As a consequence of this construction, the several cars of a train,irrespective of the loads carried, will be braked at substantiallyuniform rates so that the danger of breaking a train in two or thedanger of the crushing of an empty in front of a loaded car, which nowexists, is avoided.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination, in a vehicle comprising supporting wheels and asupported loadcarrying body, of brakeeshoes arranged to act to brakesaid wheels, and means for actuating said brake-shoes, said means com.-prising elements between the brake-shoes and load-car ying body wherebythe weight of the load-carrying body becomes the abutment for saidbrake-actuating means. 7

2. The combination, in a vehicle comprising supporting wheels, asupported loadcarrying body, and a load-carrying spring interposedbetween the load-carrying body and the wheels, of brake-shoes arrangedto a t to brake said wheels, and means for actuating said brake-shoes,said means comprising elements between the brake-shoes and weight of theload-carrying spring whereby the load-carrying body becomes the abutmentfor said brake-actuating means through said spring.

3. The combination, in a vehicle comprising supporting wheels and asupported loadcarrying body, of brake-shoes arranged to act to brakesaid wheels, levers carrying said shoes, a cam-engaged member associatedwith the load-carrying member, a second cam-engaged member connected tosaid levers, a cam interposed between said two cam-engaged memberswhereby the loadcarrying body forms an abutment for said cam, and meansby which the cam may be actuated.

4-. The combination, in a vehicle comprising supporting wheels, asupported loadcarrying body, and a load-carrying spring interposedbetween said wheels and body, of brake-shoes arranged to act to brakesaid wheels, levers carrying said shoes, at supporting cup for saidspring, a cam-engaged member associated with said cup, a secondcam-engaged member connected to said levers, a cam interposed betweensaid two cam-engaged members whereby the load-carrying body forms anabutment for said cam through the spring, and means by which the cam maybe actuated.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Indianapolis,Indiana, this 2nd day of June, A. B. one thousand nine hundred andtwenty-three.

JOHN R. STIEGELMEYER;

Certificate of Correction.

1 hereby certified that in Letters Patent No. 1,526,442, grantedFebruary 17, 1920, upon the application of John R. Stiegelmeyer, ofIndianapolis, Indiana, for an improvement in Load-Equalizing Ca-rBrakes, an error appears in the printed specification requiringcorrection asfollows: Page 2, line 90, claim 2, strike out the WordsWeight of the and insert the same before the compound word load-carryingin line 91 of the same claim; and that the said Letters Patent should beread with this correction therein that the same may conform to therecord of the case in the Patent Oflice.

Signed and sealed this 24th day of March, A. D. 1925.

[SEAL] KARL FENN IN G,

Acting Commissioner of Patents.

